The Hungarian Reformed Church and St. Columba’s Church of Scotland in Budapest have a long-standing and symbiotic relationship. Since the foundation of St. Columba’s, originally known as “The Scottish Mission”, the association between the church and the Reformed denomination has grown into a relationship of mutual respect, where each party recognizes the importance of missional support, especially in times of global crisis.
Reverend Aaron Stevens has been faithfully serving his congregation and community for sixteen years. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and now a minister of the Church of Scotland (CofS) and the Hungarian Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH), Stevens’ ministry has always centered around cross cultural ministry and discipleship through acts of service. Stevens expressed appreciation for the “dual citizenship” of St. Columba’s as a congregation of both the Church of Scotland and the Reformed Church in Hungary, saying that the relationship between the denominations has broadened the impact of both. Thus, it only made sense that these churches would work together to respond to the crisis in Ukraine.
St. Columba’s aid work with refugees goes back as far as World War II, when Jewish refugees from other countries found shelter in the Scottish Mission school. In the early 1990s, it offered some support to refugees from the former Yugoslavia. The tradition continued in 2015, when the European refugee crisis led to an influx of migration through Hungary. At this time, the Keleti and Nyugati train stations in Budapest were flooded with people leaving their home countries. “The train stations became de facto refugee camps,” remarked Stevens.
Prompted to act by both church and expatriate communities, Stevens called congregant Dóra Kanizsai-Nagy the– now former– head of Kalunba Nonprofit Kft., an implementing partner of the Hungarian Reformed Church. With Kalunba’s help, the church went to work organizing volunteers, setting up beds, and planning breakfasts for an emergency shelter that would house approximately 20 refugees per night. This shelter provided the congregation with an opportunity to live into the CofS and RCH’s traditions of service.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, the train stations of Budapest once again filled with people fleeing their homes in search of security. Stevens, recognizing the situation from 7 years prior and conscious of the need, moved to reopen the shelter. The shelter was at capacity within three days, primarily with African students who had fled Ukraine, but it quickly became clear that housing refugees would not be a sustainable service this time around.
Unlike with the 2015 European refugee crisis, many of those who left Ukraine in the early days of the war were not looking to move westward into Europe; instead, many wished to remain in border countries, in hopes that a swift end to the war would allow them to return. Now over a year since the war’s beginning, that hope is dwindling. “It proved to be a different scenario,” remarked Stevens, “People were not moving on quickly, they were staying and waiting to see what would happen.” The shelter attempted to provide meals throughout the day: “It became a 24 hour a day thing, and that started to use up the volunteer energies very quickly.”
Though the shelter was not sustainable under these circumstances, church leaders and community volunteers continued to feel a responsibility to serve the displaced population. Chris Clarke, a British expatriate and one of the shelter’s supporters, hoped to see the church adapt to the nature of this crisis. When the shelter shut its doors in March, Clarke connected with Stevens to suggest that food distribution be the next step in the church's response to the refugee crisis.
Initially, St. Columba’s cooperated with American Baptist Churches to provide hot lunches for African students who had fled Ukraine. Then, in April 2022, the food bank was founded by Clarke, Julia Wirsching, and Annett Hoffman– another volunteer from the shelter– in cooperation with Stevens and St. Columba’s Church.
The growing capacity of the organization has allowed what began as a weekly food distribution for approximately 40 Ukrainian families (130 people) to grow into a food bank that hosts 100 families (300 people) in the sanctuary of St. Columba’s every week.
The partnership between the Food Bank Aid Foundation and St. Columba’s Church has fortified the food bank’s distribution and hospitality in remarkable ways. The church supplies the necessary space for storage, packing and distribution, and the Foundation provides the personnel who place orders, keep contact with recipients, and manage volunteers. Uniquely, Food Bank Aid organizes the food distribution to allow each refugee family to order what they need from a list of items. The effort to personalize orders reduces waste and respects the autonomy of each family, a primary objective of the organization. Furthermore, the food bank aims to accommodate dietary restrictions and food intolerances, providing alternatives when possible.
Another important development was the addition of the cafe, which is hosted in the church on distribution day every week. When the families pick up their groceries, they are welcomed into the sanctuary where tables and chairs and a children's corner is set up, and snacks and drinks are provided.
When discussing the development of the food bank, Chris Clarke seems most gratified by the positive impact of the cafe: “The cafe is kind of imperative. When the cafe was made, what was just a food bank, became a community.” Providing an opportunity for displaced people to build community is an important service. Clarke explained, “When recipients first come in they can be ashamed or a bit nervous, but the cafe normalizes the experience… they go in and speak to each other and they are making friends.”
Since its inception, funding for the food bank has been a joint effort between the church and the Foundation. The Food Bank Aid Foundation relies on funding from the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM), but church fundraising remains essential for covering the regular gaps between funding periods. “We have some members who give regularly and anonymously” commented Stevens, “but the bulk of it [the church’s funding contribution] comes from international congregations, especially the Church of Scotland and the Christian Reformed Church in North America.”
Stevens believes in the church's responsibility to be a house of service, a view that is shared by the Scottish Church and the Hungarian Reformed Church. “The Church of Scotland has adopted something called ‘The Five Marks of Mission,’” explains Stevens “The shelters and the food bank are our church's expression of the 3rd mark: to respond to human need by loving service.